Emmeline "miscellaneous graph things" Vance (vancey) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-07-02 13:59:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! [1979-07] july, emmeline vance, meaghan dearborn (née mccormack) |
RP Log; Emmeline & Meaghan.
Who: Emmeline and Meaghan.
What: Angry Meaghan is angry, Rational Emmeline is rational.
When: Late night on 1 July, 1979.
Where: Emmeline's flat in Camden, Muggle London.
Rating: PG-13 for language.
Status: Logged. Complete.
Horatio was looking at her rather disdainfully. Emmeline couldn't blame her cat, really, since she had only just let out a loud groan of frustration before flinging her journal across the living room. The cat yawned again, disregarding his owner's quizzical stare, and sat down on the journal that lay open on the floor. Great, Emmeline thought. Tomorrow people will wake up to imprints of Horatio's arse on their respective journals. Standing up abruptly, she pushed him off the book (avoiding a swipe of Horatio's claws by a couple of inches) and stomped off to the kitchen. Marlene. Attacked. James mentioned blood. Emmeline took a deep breath, trying to stave off the need to break things. Fuck. She knew how Meaghan was feeling but she was not going to chuck a mental fit at the others. It was the last thing they needed at the moment. She glanced around the kitchen for something to do and decided to make tea. It was what mothers did, right? If there's something wrong, make a cup of tea? Emmeline wouldn't really know seeing that her own mother wasn't the nurturing type. "Right," she muttered to herself, bending down to find cups, "Tea it is." Meaghan had had absolutely enough of this bullshit. She was fuming, and the best thing for her to do would be to get the hell away from anyone who she wanted to currently punch in the face, and that meant getting away from her journal and going to Em's flat, where she could be restrained if necessary. She Apparated with a crack into the middle of Emmeline's living room, nearly on top of her poor cat. With a sigh, she nudged the poor animal out of her way and went to seek her friend, calling out. "Emmeline?" She sighed, took another deep breath, and then walked into the kitchen, where she took in the very domestic scene in front of her. It should be noted that she had neither journal nor whiskey in her hands, so that was one positive step. Her face was dark with anger and her brows drawn together, shadowing her eyes and making her look quite fierce. "Emmeline, what the fuck did I get myself into? Is this how it is all the time?" She heard Horatio's guttural growling and hissing followed by Meaghan's voice; startled, Emmeline almost cracked her head on counter as she stood up. "In here," she called from the kitchen, setting the cups and rubbing the sore spot on her head. Another thing to add to her headache, she thought ruefully an hastened to fill the battered copper kettle with water. The look on Meaghan's face was alarming and Emmeline was suddenly glad that her friend had the restraint not to have Apparated to Godric's Hollow and punched James Potter in the face. She pressed her lips into a thin line and repressed a nod. There were certainly some times when some news didn't make it all the way to all the members of the Order immediately. "Well," Emmeline started, tapping her wand on the copper kettle, urging the water to boil faster, "Sometimes it's... difficult to, ah, let everyone know what's happening at once." "She is my partner, Em! She is my fucking partner." She began to pace in agitated circles, her body a rod of tension that looked ready to snap at any moment. "You don't even know the half of it! Before he told you lot, he wrote to me, as innocent as you please, just 'oh, Meg, where do you happen to be?' and then just 'oh, nothing, no reason, something happened to Marlene pop by tomorrow to find out." She slammed her fist on the counter then, and looked instantly rueful. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She ran a hand through her hair, an already-tangled cloud of black curls getting more and more out of control. "They didn't tell me what had happened to my partner, they're not telling her parents, they didn't owl Alice, they didn't owl Frank, or Aberforth, or the fucking Ministry! She was attacked by a fucking werewolf! What the hell are these people doing?" She was clenching her fists so tightly her nails were digging grooves into her palms. "If this is what it's like, we're going to lose and we fucking deserve to!" Emmeline winced as Meaghan's fist made contact with the counter, making the cups rattle ominously. "Alright, okay," she said, hoping that her voice sounded placating enough but it probably sounded more panicked than anything. Emmeline grabbed the kettle and quickly turned off the stove, nearly topping over the cups in her haste to make tea. "I'm sure James had his reasons," she said, shoving a cup of tea into Meaghan's hand and pulling her over to the kitchen table. Emmeline considered getting Horatio and putting him on Meaghan's lap but didn't want to risk exacerbating the situation by having her cat maul her friend to death. "Wait," Emmeline stiffened, "She was attacked by a werewolf?" She tried to make the hysteria in her voice go down by taking more deep breaths. Marlene. Werewolf. Fuck. "No one told me that," she said in a falsely calm voice, taking the seat next to Meaghan. She allowed herself to be made to sit and handed her tea, looking around for a bit of milk to add to it. Tea sounded like a wonderful idea at the moment. "Yes. but that Tabitha woman abomination. And then Agnes popped off to go and fight here and...I don't know, no one did any thinking at all. If she was attacked, why wasn't she taken to Saint Mungo's? Why weren't her parent's informed? Why weren't the authorities informed? This is absolute anarchy, Em." She rubbed her hand across her eyes, trying to maintain her composure. "What. The. Fuck." The words came out of Emmeline's mouth before she could think. She must have missed the details that were revealed after she threw her journal into the opposite wall. She mushed the palms of her hands on her face and stood up abruptly to take the jug of milk out of the fridge. The glass clattered a little as she repressed the urge to slam the bottle down. Not the time to lose your temper, Emmeline kept repeating. "I don't know," she sighed and slumped back down on her chair. "I know that sometimes it looks as if the Gryffindor lot just do whatever they think is right," Emmeline took a sip of her tea and pushed her hair back from her face. The Gryffindors... well, they weren't bad exactly. They were just used to bypassing authority but the Order's structure didn't help either. "Anarchy's a good word for it," she said, resignedly, "What we need is one of the older members to slap sense into some people and give clear, precise directions on what to do if something happens." Thinking about this helped calm Emmeline down a little and she gradually began to relax. She was almost proud of Em for swearing. It was nice to see a crack in the normally stalwart Ravenclaw facade. She poured the milk into her cup and then held it near Em's glass in a silent offer to add some to her host's. "I just... I don't understand it. I'm a Gryffindor, and I'm only two years older than that lot, but it sometimes feels like I might as well be a thousand. I mean, I'm impulsive. I have a temper and I'm reckless and christ, everyone knows I dealt with my grief by drinking myself into a stupor for two weeks, but I still just don't understand what could possess them to just be so flagrantly, utterly, shamelessly stupid." Emmeline shook her head at Meaghan's offer to add milk to her tea. She needed the caffeine and the milk would only dull the effects. She took a glance at her cupboard, resenting herself for forgetting to buy more coffee when she was out that day. Emmeline wanted more than anything to nod in agreement to what Meaghan was saying but the thought that James must have been looking out for his friends kept her from it. She scratched her forehead and leaned her head on a hand, trying to analyse the situation. "If they took Marlene to Mungo's..." Emmeline's voice trailed off as she kept continued to dissect the situation, her brows furrowed in concentration. "They would have asked questions. A lot of questions, what with the--the bite." Her voice faltered a little. Did that mean that Marlene was... No. Emmeline tried to shake the thought from her mind. "And the same thing would happen with the Ministry." She fell silent, fidgetting with the cup in her free hand. "I don't know why they couldn't have contacted Alice and Frank or Moody though." "I just don't see what questions they could have asked that were so horrible! She was abducted, attacked, and returned. There is nothing about that linking her to the Order or anything else we need to keep a secret. And she would have received proper care rather than whatever bit of cobbled-together aid they managed to scrape together from what they had on hand. What if there are permanent effects they could have avoided if she had gone to a Healer? And most importantly, and what troubles me the most, is why didn't they tell her parents?." Meg was so focused on the logic of their actions, she was sounding positively Ravenclaw. Emmeline nodded gravely as Meaghan talked. Her friend had given very good points, all very sound points that Emmeline had to agree. Something Sirius said in the journals the other day came back to her then and she frowned, pushing her hair back from her face even if there wasn't need to. "Sometimes," Emmeline sighed in resignation, "People don't always act with reason; emotions and that sort of thing." She waved a hand vaguely in front of her. "Perhaps James panicked and decided that it was best if Marlene stayed put, then Remus got into the mess and added to the chaos." She stared blankly at the kitchen wall for a moment before asking, "Was Lily there?" She shrugged, trying to remember what had been said. "I think so. Probably, yes." That made more sense than her not being there, anyway. "I understand that. But my point is, my overall point, the thesis of this statement, is that there should be protocols for this shit. There should be an established set of rules and guidelines for what is and isn't done in these situations. And the fact that there aren't, in an organization this old, seriously worries me." She rubbed her hands across her face again, nearly grinding her fingertips into her eyelids. "I think I want out, Em." "What?" Emmeline jerked upright at the sound of the word 'out'. She wanted to shake Meaghan and tell her that she cannot leave now but Emmeline sat there staring at the older girl. Meaghan. Quit. It didn't make sense. After another moment's silence, Emmeline finally composed herself enough to speak. "I know that we're disorganised and we don't have any particular structure of leadership," she paused, tapping her cup nervously, "But if we lose more people, I don't know how we can present a strong opposition, Meaghan." Emmeline was frowning and looking at her friend but it looked more like she was thinking about something instead of being angry. "If we don't do anything about this, who will?" She was startled at the girl's reaction, at her sudden movements. She hadn't expected her to feel so strongly about it. "I know, I know." She sighed, gathering her thoughts. "But wanting to do something and being unable felt a whole lot better than being surrounded by people who could do something but don't. If this is the opposition, Em, then we're going to lose, and hell, we deserve to." She was more than inclined to agree. Meaghan could not have known how many doubts Emmeline had of the Order... and of certain additions... but it was the best they could do with so little notice. Did Meaghan think that she didn't realise that they possibility of their side losing was far higher than their side winning? Emmeline seemed to sag back into her chair and she buried her face in her hands. "We will do something and soon," she said as she pulled her hands from her face, letting them fall clenched to her sides. "I know some members of the Order are complete and utter idiots but we cannot give up now." Emmeline took a drink of tea to ease the pounding in her head. "Can't you see?" she looked up at Meaghan desperately, "There is no one else, we need you and we will do something. We just need to make sure that we're trained properly and that we won't die when we get out there to fight." The passion in her friend's voice moved her, reached inside her past the desperate anger and shook loose her compassion again. Drinking her tea, she reached out and rested a hand on the girl's knee. "I'll talk to Alice tomorrow, okay? I'll talk to her before I make any decisions." "Alright," was all Emmeline could say, nodding slightly. She wanted more than anything for Meaghan to stay and... not give up. Emmeline wanted to tell her that she would help so much with the Order and that all they needed was time to gather their resources but she kept silent. She had said what she could say and the decision was Meaghan's to make, whether Emmeline wanted it or not. |